on Archives - Futurzweb

Finance ministry mulling 3-5% tax in Budget on cash withdrawal of 10 lakh a year

June 11, 2019 Loknath Das

NEW DELHI: Withdrawing a cumulative ₹10 lakh a year can attract 3-5 per cent tax if a proposal going around in the Finance Ministry takes shape in the Budget to track high value cash deals and make digital payments mandatory. In its push towards a digital economy, the central government is thinking of introducing a tax of 3-5 per cent on cash withdrawal of ₹10 lakh in a year, a move to discourage cash usage in the economy and resultant black money. Paying ₹30,000-50,000 for ₹10 lakh annual withdrawal will be seen as a loss, the…

Finance ministry mulling 3-5% tax in Budget on cash withdrawal of 10 lakh a year

June 11, 2019 Loknath Das

British Airways passenger forced to travel on seat covered in dried vomit

June 8, 2019 Loknath Das

After the carrier failed to issue an apology the man shared the photo on Twitter. A British Airways (BA) business class passenger was left feeling ‘disgusted’ when he had to travel in a 10-hour flight on a seat plastered in vomit. Dave Gildea, vice-president of a software company in San Francisco was travelling from London to Seattle when he reportedly upgraded to business class at Heathrow Airport. However, instead of having a comfortable experience, he was dismayed to see vomit all around his designated seat. The 38-year-old man said when…

PM Modi, Ministers spend Rs 393 cr on foreign, domestic travel in 5 years

May 11, 2019 Loknath Das

A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Council of Ministers incurred an expenditure of Rs 393 crore on foreign and domestic travel in last five fiscal years. City-based RTI activist Anil Galgali had filed an RTI query with the PMO seeking the total Foreign Travel Expenses (FTE) and Domestic Travel Expenses (DTE) incurred by the Prime Minister and his council since May 2014. In December 2018, the Modi government, replying to queries on foreign travel expenses in Rajya Sabha, had said that…

Student discounts you can get on holiday travel and at tourist destinations

April 16, 2019 Loknath Das

Book flights and hotels in advance, travel in the shoulder season and take the DIY approach. We are all familiar with such travel tips to keep our vacation budgets under control. However, there’s more money to be saved during family holidays if you have a school or college-going child. You can grab student discounts on entry fees to heritage sites and airfare. Then there are additional benefits like special travel cards that are designed exclusively for students. These discounts should not be confused with concessions that are offered to children in general.…

RBI to set up panel on development of housing finance securitisation market

April 5, 2019 Loknath Das

The Reserve Bank of India, on Thursday, announced that it will soon set up a committee to assess the state of housing finance securitisation market in the country. The move is aimed at bringing in standardisation of asset securitisation practices to enable better management of credit and liquidity risks. The committee, which will be announced soon, will also study the best international practices, and lessons learnt from the global financial financial crisis. It will propose measures to further develop these markets in India by identifying critical steps required, such as…

Travel Photographer Marisa Hampe Reflects On Her Favorite Photos

March 20, 2019 Loknath Das

Photographer Marisa Hampe posts beautiful travel images from around the world on her Instagram, but unlike other popular accounts, her photos are dark and daring rather than the sweet and sunny photos that often crowd our feeds. Also instead of checking off popular locales, the German content creator seeks our remote locations frequently scaling mountains and cliffs to get an unobstructed view from the top. I spoke to Hampe about some of her most memorable photos to date and how she got her start in the business. Marisa HampeMARISA HAMPE How did you get…

Small finance banks start on a strong wicket: ICRA

March 17, 2019 Loknath Das

Mumbai: Rating agency ICRANSE 3.23 % expects small finance banks (SFBs) to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 25% to 30% led by diversified loan growth, deposit mobilisation, improving asset quality and better return on equity. The rating agency estimates that SFBs would require external capital of Rs. 4,000-6,000 crore till FY2023 for meeting the growth requirements, part of which will come through IPOs. ICRA estimates that SFBs have reported an annualised growth of 33% in the assets under management (AUM) in 9M FY2019 to Rs. 64,325 crore. These banks have been able…

Why businesses depend on this man’s technology

March 11, 2019 Loknath Das

The BBC’s weekly The Boss series profiles different business leaders from around the world. This week we speak to Jeff Lawson, co-founder and chief executive of US technology company Twilio. Jeff Lawson was all set to secure investment in his new start-up Twilio when suddenly people thought the world might be collapsing. Back on Monday, 15 September 2008, Jeff and his two co-founders walked into a meeting with potential investors in Silicon Valley. Getting the funding was supposed to be “almost a formality”, remembers Jeff, who was 31 at the…

‘Hidden city’ travel: why airlines are cracking down on a discount trick

February 17, 2019 Loknath Das

A Lufthansa flight lands in Munich. The airline says a single case of ‘hidden city’ travel cost them more than €2,000. Photograph: Lukas Barth/EPA Airlines are cracking down on a ticketing loophole that can knock thousands of pounds off the cost of travel – but the fight back is only giving more publicity to the advantages of “hidden city” travel. At its most simplistic, hidden city ticketing is when a passenger purchases a ticket to less popular and thus cheaper destination that happens to be routed through a more popular, and thus…